Sean
Connery 007 James Bond Collection 4K
(1962 - 1971/UA/MGM/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Set)/Terror
In The Fog: Wallace Krimi At CCC Blu-ray Set
(1963 - 1964/MVD/Eureka! Blu-ray Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: X/B (Soho:
C+) Sound: B- Extras: A/B Bond Films:
Dr.
No
B
From
Russia With Love
B
Goldfinger
B+
Thunderball
B
You
Only Live Twice
B+
and
Diamonds
Are Forever
B+
PLUS
the separate Terror
set films: B-
Now
for two movie series reflecting their early 1960s time, the former of
which remains the most successful movie franchise in cinema
history...
The
Sean Connery 007 James Bond Collection 4K
(1962 - 1971) has arrived, a follow-up to the 4K Daniel Craig set we
covered not long ago. It includes all six of the films he made
within the Bond series (so it does NOT include Thunderball
remake Never
Say Never Again)
and comes with no regular Blu-ray discs. Besides new sound mixes and
almost all the extras of the previous DVD and Blu-ray editions of the
films, with some dated ones removed, you can read about all six films
at these links in our previous coverage:
Dr.
No, From Russia With Love, Thunderball
Blu-rays
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7716/James+Bond+Blu-ray+Wave+One
Goldfinger
Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8427/James+Bond+Blu-ray+Wave+Two/Volu
You
Only Live Twice
DVD
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4709/James+Bond+Ultimate+Edition
Diamonds
Are Forever
DVD
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4785/James+Bond+Ultimate+Edition+%e2%80%93+Vol
Though
no Blu-ray press copies of You
Only Live Twice
and Diamonds
Are Forever
were sent to most of the press, I can say that they were better in
picture and sound over the DVDs like the rest and that this new 4K
set is at least as much of an improvement over the Blu-rays as the
Blu-rays were of the DVDs. However, the DVD and Blu-ray editions
came from the same HD masters, but this set has new 4K masters and
they are amazing.
I'll
get into all that below in the tech section, but fans will not be
disappointed and that they kept almost all the previous extras on the
same respective disc is great, not hurting the playback quality at
all. A few dated pieces were dropped, but that's all. One of the
best sets of the year, especially of 4K releases, and show yet again
how great and influential, these films are, some of the most of all
time.
Terror
In The Fog: Wallace Krimi At CCC Blu-ray Set
(1963 - 1964) offers six films form the Krimi cycle in Germany that
deals with mystery films in a way post-Film Noir that shows the wave
of filmmaking Bond was also surfing. Edgar Wallace was a major
writer of mystery novels and was getting his work adapted all over
the place, now with his son Bryan Edgar Wallace partly involved with
this series of films from the same studio that produced a series of
Dr.
Mabuse
films we just covered from Eureka! (elsewhere on this site) and
proved once again they know how to do great sets of underrated films.
This set includes...
Franz
Josef Gottlieb's The
Curse of the Yellow Snake
(1963) has Asian stereotypes that age, date and hurt the film, but
when that is not in the way, this is actually a very well made film
otherwise as a rare piece of Chinese equity goes stolen. If the
Asian characters were more believable, this would not have to be
lumped with the old Fu Manchu films.
Edwin
Zbonek's The
Mad Executioners
(1963) is an earlier variant of Peter Hyams' underrated 1983 thriller
The
Star Chamber
with Michael Douglas where a group of respectable judges are also
meting out justice illegally against criminals, et al, but you know
this will eventually go bad and maybe quickly. You get some sleazy
items and other interesting twists in the plot that make this a good
one to watch. Roughly inspired by Wallace's classic novel 4
Just Men,
we have reviewed two variants of it as a British TV series here:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10160/The+4+Just+Men+%e2%80%93+The
And
an audio book adaption here:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11982/Naxos+Audiobook+CDs:+Bulldog+Drummond,+The+Bl
Harald
Reinl's
The
Strangler of Blackmoor Castle
(1963) is actually based on a Bryan Edgar Wallace book (he gets some
screenplay writing credits elsewhere) as the plot tags the British as
more 'colonial' than the Germans (hmmmm) but the better part of the
film is that everyone is going after a valuable set of diamonds, with
murder not far behind. A good MacGuffin for the film, this has some
good moments too, despite some very bad parts. Karin Dor from You
Only Live Twice
(see above) steals some scenes and the cast is not bad.
Edwin
Zbonek's The
Monster of London City
(1964) has a Jack The Ripper stage play going on when suddenly, a set
of real murders similar to the infamous serial killer starts to
happen. Is it someone from the play? Hans Nielsen and Marianne Koch
lead the cast in one of the smoother entries here.
Franz
Josef Gottlieb's The
Phantom of Soho
(1964) has racial stereotype, white slavery and more murder than
mystery with another Jack The Ripper-type killer as the film goes for
broke in its wackiness. The cast and some 'so-bad-its-almost-good'
moments save this from being a total disaster, but some of the really
bad parts are hard to ignore.
and
Franz Josef Gottlieb's The
Racetrack Murders
(1964) is set at the title locale and you get plenty of horse race
action to go with the murders and some mystery, but it is not as
thick a mystery as it should be, yet it is nicely done like similar
works Wallace's fellow writers of the time were occasionally making.
I like the locales, cast and feel, but it is also one of the smoother
entries here.
In
all cases, flaws and all, the makers were being very ambitious in
making these films work, despite some missteps and lack of mystery.
They come from a place where people still read books, liked books and
the mystery genre was taken more seriously in general and we got more
such films. With Branagh's Poirot and Craig's Knives
Out
films being so popular and successful, the timing of this set could
not be better. Recommended for movie and film fans with some limited
reservations.
Extras
include a
Limited Edition hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Poochamin
Limited
edition 60-page collector's book featuring a new introduction to the
Wallace krimi cycle by film writer Howard Hughes, a new essay on
Edgar Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace by crime fiction expert Barry
Forshaw and new notes on each film by Holger with this set limited
to only 2,000 copies
And
for more Wallace action, try the link to our coverage to a double
feature of his works adapted in Circus
Of Fear
(aka Psycho-Circus)
and Five
Golden Dragons:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14323/Allegiant:+The+Divergent+Series+(2016/Summit/Lions
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, Dolby Vision/HDR
(10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image (1.75 X 1
on the first three films, 2.35 X 1 Panavision scope on the rest) on
the Connery
4K
set comes from new 4K scans that annihilate the old, sometimes
problematic, Blu-ray transfers from many years ago. I expected we
might bet new scans, but these are much better than expected. All
six films were originally issued in dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor version of the film, but you can see in many
places how good it must have looked in such copies. Director of
Photography Ted Moore, B.S.C. (and Freddie Young, B.S.C. on You
Only Live Twice
all on his own) deliver some of the most memorable, initiated and
influential images in modern filmmaking here and now, you can see why
and how in very, very vivid and even spectacular detail.
Some
examples of the improvements of each film include the best color I
have seen on Dr.
No
save a 35mm print I saw a long time ago, I can say the same for From
Russia With Love
but the weak Video Black issues from the older transfers are gone. I
always applied a 'gold standard' to Goldfinger
as so many video copies and broadcast/cable copies have had Video
Gold that was weak, substandard and or did not look like money or the
real thing.
As
I discussed in my previous Blu-ray review of the film, there is the
scene where Bond throws down a bar of Nazi Gold and Goldfinger
reacts. The image on that disc was shiny when it should be showing
the richness of the smelted gold cooled in that state for a few
decades. Instead, it was washed out by the sun as the transfer...
did not hold the color correctly. You could not see the deep shadow
of the Nazi Swastika impression and it does not look heavy either.
It ruins the scene. That left three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor
prints of the film, a good lesser color print that retains the
richness of that bar and even the long-out-of-print Criterion 12-inch
LaserDisc of the film to see that as it should be. Now, the color is
rich, authentic, you see it how it as intended and all the gold in
the film overall looks like real gold! I was hoping this is what we
would get and we got it, which extends to all the gold and other
colors on this transfer finally
being as great as they can be and are supposed to be.
Thunderball
was also the first widescreen Panavision Bond and between the great
use of the scope frame, Technicolor and legendary underwater
cinematography even outdoes all the improvements since the 12-inch
LaserDisc box was a revelation. Panavision had the best anamorphic
lenses and they really deliver here.
You
Only Live Twice
has its spectacular cinematography from Japan, the legendary volcano
hideout and so much more, the scope frame becomes more naturalistic
and not just because of a Director of Photography switch, but because
it was being seen as less and less of a gimmick at this point. The
impact of Donald Plesence as Blofeld is stronger than ever,
especially after all those Austin Powers films and you can see the
money the Bond producers were spending at the peak of having so much
worldwide competition on the big and small screen for the spy action
genre the series created.
And
then you get Diamonds
Are Forever
with its great location work in the old Las Vegas, a film that is
funnier and more subtly satirical that previous films, but with very
adult humor and thematic darkness matched by some of the darker
camerawork in the series as intended. Still rich and glamorous, the
film uses this tactic to give the series a new look now that the spy
craze of the 1960s slowly starts to decline, but also fits with the
Hollywood New Wave look of movies that started in 1967 that would
save the series in the 1970s. Jill St. John and costume designer
Donfeld take full advantage of it all too.
Sure,
some matte work, model work and some older visual effects are going
to be dated and obvious, but even they look great in Technicolor!
This also means when you have full sized vehicles, sets, weapons,
group action and killer sets, you can see the color and money more
clearly than ever. The actors and their performances also shine as
great as ever, making it all the more fun to watch them and there are
some amazing shots on all six films so amazing, they are above my
ratings for them and are all evidence of how incredible a 4K
presentation can be.
So
unless you have a real dye-transfer Technicolor print or really good
color print in another format that is not highly damaged or fading,
you cannot outdo the transfers in this set.
We'll
add detail and comments as when necessary as more reactions and
controversies occur from viewer reactions.
The
soundtracks on all six Bond films have at least two options, new
lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems)
upgrades for all films, plus DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono
lossless mixes for all six films, all starting from their original
optical mono theatrical sound releases and the Atmos adding stereo
music where applicable. The Mono is richer and thicker than even the
5.1 mixes from the older format editions, but the Atmos offers
authentic stereo sound and does its best to fill 12+ channels.
Diamonds
Are Forever
is the only film whose Atmos gets to compete with its original mono
in more palpable ways, but it too is going to show the age of the
film's sonics just the same. The best news is that both monophonic
tracks for Thunderball
have been included, including the older, unfinished on that was used
as the home video soundtrack for the film's release before MGM/UA's
spectacular 12-inch LaserDisc box set was issued (all of its extras
here) using the older soundtrack before a final one was added to
later film prints of the megahit as it was playing the theaters for a
long, long time.
The
1080p black & white (with some color lettering in select credits)
digital High Definition image transfers (1.33 X 1 on Racetrack,
1.66 X 1 on Snake
and Castle,
2.35 X 1 on the other three films as shot in real anamorphic
Ultrascope) Terror
set can sometimes show the age of the materials used, but these all
look great, though sadly, The
Phantom of Soho
is only here in low definition from a decent print that has been
misplaced or lost. These are all well shot and despite its flaws and
limits, I like the look of Ultrascope and the films here in that
format are solid demos for it. The
PCM 2.0 German Mono sound on all six films sound
as good as they ever will, well restored and preserved, not having
some of the issues with brittleness the Mabuse
films had too often sadly in that Eureka!/CCC set.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
